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AT: Terrorism

Drones fail

Drone strikes spur insurgency – they can strike back


Boyle, 13

Michael Boyle, Associate Professor of Political Science at La Salle University in Philadelphia and a Senior Fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, “The Costs and Consequences of Drone Warfare,” 2013, Wiley // IS



Yet the evidence that drones inhibit the operational latitude of terrorist groups and push them towards collapse is more ambiguous than these accounts suggest.57 In Pakistan, the ranks of Al-Qaeda have been weakened significantly by drone strikes, but its members have hardly given up the fight. Hundreds of Al-Qaeda members have fled to battlefields in Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.58 These operatives bring with them the skills, experience and weapons needed to turn these wars into fiercer, and perhaps longer-lasting, conflicts.59 In other words, pressure from drone strikes may have scattered Al-Qaeda militants, but it does not neutralize them. Many Al-Qaeda members have joined forces with local insurgent groups in Syria, Mali and elsewhere, thus deepening the conflicts in these states.60 In other cases, drones have fuelled militant movements and reordered the alliances and positions of local combatants. Following the escalation of drone strikes in Yemen, the desire for revenge drove hundreds, if not thousands, of Yemeni tribesmen to join Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as well as smaller, indigenous militant networks.61 Even in Pakistan, where the drone strikes have weakened Al-Qaeda and some of its affiliated movements, they have not cleared the battlefield. In Pakistan, other Islamist groups have moved into the vacuum left by the absence of Al-Qaeda, and some of these groups, particularly the cluster of groups arrayed under the name Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), now pose a greater threat to the Pakistani government than Al-Qaeda ever did.62 Drone strikes have distinct political effects on the ecology of militant networks in these countries, leaving some armed groups in a better position while crippling others. It is this dynamic that has accounted for the US decision gradually to expand the list of groups targeted by drone strikes, often at the behest of Pakistan. Far from concentrating exclusively on Al-Qaeda, the US has begun to use drone strikes against Pakistan’s enemies, including the TTP, the Mullah Nazir group, the Haqqani network and other smaller Islamist groups.63 The result is that the US has weakened its principal enemy, Al-Qaeda, but only at the cost of earning a new set of enemies, some of whom may find a way to strike back.64 The cost of this expansion of targets came into view when the TTP inspired and trained Faisal Shahzad to launch his attack on Times Square.65 Similarly, the TTP claimed to be involved, possibly with Al-Qaeda, in attacking a CIA outpost at Camp Chapman in the Khost region of Afghanistan on 30 December 2009.66

Terrorism Good

Terror threat key to US-Russian relations


Hooson, 08

Paul Hooson, former lobbyist and writer for Progressive Values, “New Wave of Terrorism may Draw Russia & U.S. closer again,” 11/30/14, http://wizbangblue.com/2008/11/30/new-wave-of-terrorism-may-draw-russia-us-closer-again.php // IS



Interestingly, VOICE OF RUSSIA, the Russian news-service which is a virtual mouthpiece for the Russian government Putin regime and the Putin dominated United Russia political party seems to be taking a much less confrontational opinion of the U.S. in the last few days since the violence in Mumbai, India as well elsewhere in the world. Since the Russian military offensive in Georgia in August, American and Russian relations had been greatly strained, but now Russia views a recent uptick in international terrorism as evidence that the United States, Russia and the EU must work together as allies to prevent a spread of this epidemic of violence around the world. Russia might also be realizing that with a fresh administration coming into power in Washington soon, that it might just be more pragmatic to paper-over the recent bad relations since Georgia, and work together for a better relationship with Washington. And the shared international fears of terrorism just might give both Washington as well as Moscow good enough of a reason to forget each nation's problems with the other somewhat, and work together to stem rising international terrorism. Besides the terrorist violence in Mumbai, terrorism in Georgia claimed the life a pro-Moscow mayor, and a U.S. embassy in Kabul was attacked as well. VOICE OF RUSSIA notes that these actions came recently when Russian-Western relations have suffered in the wake of the Georgia conflict. Russia seems to be opening the door to improved relations with Washington and the EU by running such a feature on VOICE OF RUSSIA, where it appears that they are inviting an improvement in relations, perhaps viewing the incoming Obama Administration as less confrontational to Russia than the Bush administration. Interestingly, the news coverage on VOICE OF RUSSIA appears to be far less anti-Washington in tone as well in recent days, a sharp contrast from the more heated opinions in Russia around the time of the August actions in Georgia. Surprisingly, it appears as though Moscow might have blinked first here. And if anything, this is an important signal to the incoming Obama Administration that better relations with Russia built on common ground issues such as combating international terrorism are very possible. An improvement in relations with Russia is very important because it is the only nation in the world with a nuclear weapons force large enough to battle the U.S. to draw or worse. The two world military superpowers. Russia and the U.S. need to work together on many issues, and not allow events like Georgia to put the two nations at dangerous odds with other, especially when world terrorism just might be on the rise once again, taking some advantage of the problems that Washington and Moscow have been having since the Georgia incident. There is the saying that the, "Enemy of my enemy is my friend". And since Russia, the U.S. and the EU are all three disgusted with worldwide terrorist violence, then this may well provide the common ground required for better relations between the states.


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